Via Rail passenger trains running between Windsor and Toronto will return to full service Thursday morning after protester blockades across Canada stranded thousands of people over the last several days.

Via issued a statement Tuesday evening stating all trains in the Toronto-London-Windsor, Toronto-Sarnia and Toronto-Niagara corridors will resume service.

That announcement was among several unexpected local developments Tuesday sprouting from an ongoing dispute over construction of a natural gas pipeline in B.C. that has crippled passenger and freight train service across Canada.

Before Via announced passenger service would resume, the Teamsters union said the company decided to temporarily reopen part of its Southwestern Ontario track and allow a freight train to move between London and Windsor.

That sudden move itself came on the heels of news that Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways had struck a deal to move freight into Michigan through the Windsor-Detroit rail tunnel while tracks are shutdown.

Laura Hasulo, chair of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Division 390, said freight equivalent to two miles worth of train has built up in Windsor since the Via lines were shut down Friday.

“Via’s operations are shut down so we haven’t been able to take our freight train either east or west,” said Hasulo, who represents CN employees in Windsor. “We’re not bringing in any traffic and we’re not moving any traffic. So our management had been working with CP’s management on a deal where we could pull our traffic, specifically Chrysler traffic, the auto traffic, through to Michigan to hand off to the CN crews there. They will then split it up eastbound and westbound through North America.”

In a show of solidarity with the hereditary Wet’suwet’en chiefs, who are opposing construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline through traditional territories in B.C., protesters have blocked rail lines in several parts of Canada.

The blockades have disrupted freight and passenger traffic across the country, forcing CN to shut down much of its rail network in eastern Canada.

In response, Via cancelled trains and shut down the tracks it owns on Friday, stating it had “no other option but to cancel most of its services until further notice.”

But Via Rail said Tuesday service will resume in Southwestern Ontario Thursday morning. The company said there will also be a partial resumption of passenger service in the Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa corridor. That service will also resume Thursday morning.

Representatives of CN Rail, Via Rail and Chrysler did not respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment Tuesday.

CN has a daily freight train that runs from Windsor to London and back again.

That has been cut off, said Hasulo.

She said the disruptions have not caused any layoffs or job loss for CN employees in Windsor, but that will happen eventually if the disruptions continue. There is a total of 17 engineers and conductors working out of Windsor, she said.

Hasulo said CN Railway has made a deal with Canadian Pacific, which owns the Detroit rail tunnel, to move freight into Michigan and get around the closed tracks. Once in Michigan, the freight will be handed off to crews in the U.S. working for CN and other rail lines to get the shipments across North America.

CN crews in the U.S. will also send empty cars back over to Windsor.

“We’d give them the loads and they’d give us the empties,” said Hasulo.

Hasulo said the company has been able to move product around Windsor, where Chrysler and Zalev Brothers are among the company’s biggest clients.

“We’ve had a stockpile of cars here in Windsor,” she said. “So we’ve been able to service our customers here in Windsor and move traffic around Windsor. We just haven’t been able to bring traffic in.”

Adding more drama to the fluid situation, Hasulo said she received a call late Tuesday afternoon that Via Rail made a sudden decision to let CN move a train from London to Windsor at midnight.

Via owns the section of track between Windsor and Chatham, she said, and CN owns the track the rest of the way to London.

She said CN was planning to send a crew from Windsor up to London to bring the train back.

“Via is allowing us to run a train tonight through their territory,” Hasulo said Tuesday.

She hoped it was a sign that the tracks might soon reopen for good.

“We hope for a peaceful negotiated settlement so that this does not keep happening,” Hasulo said.